A Writer’s Journal

Friday, December 26, 2014
Waxing Moon
Jupiter Retrograde
Boxing Day/St. Stephen’s Day
First Day of Christmas

I hope you all had a joyful holiday. Ours was about cooking, eating, being with family, books, cats. The good stuff.

Read a lot, including devouring two of Joanne Dobson’s Karen Pelletier mysteries. They are excellent. I’m surprised she’s a new-to-me author. It was great to read them, because a stack of books I read over the past few days were deeply disappointing.

I have to sit down this coming week and outline the first few novellas with the RED WIDOW characters. Without the outline, it’s not going to work. The stories feature a different set of connected protagonists in each, but I need an idea of the overall shape before any of them will work properly. I also need to dive back into BALTHAZAAR, and INITIATE needs attention.

I’m working on the Burns/Woolf piece, and percolating ideas for a radio drama for an overseas production company with whom I’m in negotiation.

I hopped on and off social media occasionally during the holiday, and, honestly, was rather frustrated with all the desperate self-promotion. I understand our books and goods make good holiday gifts, but, please! Some of the pushing put me completely off those authors.

Working on my Goals, Dreams, and Resolutions questions and my new five-year-plan. Need to get back behind the wheel and steer where I want and need to be, and aim for something specific on the horizon.

Work today and tomorrow, then off until Wednesday morning. Still have a lot to get done before the end of the year, but at least I can clear off a bunch of stuff and get going on the new year. One of the things I want to do is purge a bunch of stuff from the basement – -things I don’t want or need, that are holding me back. It’ll be a cycle of “cutting deadwood” over the next few months, something deeply necessary. Cut away the old to make room for the new, keeping only what has genuine meaning.

Twitter Updates

Pages

NMLC’s Mermaid Ball

Devon’s Random Newsletter

To get Devon's Random Newsletter, send an email to devonsrandomnewsletter at gmail dot com with "Subscribe" in the header.

Devon’s Bookstore

GWEN FINNEGAN MYSTERIES

Archaeologist Dr. Gwen Finnegan is on the hunt for her lover’s killer. Shy historical researcher Justin Yates, frustrated with his failing relationship, jumps at the chance to join her on a real adventure through Europe, pursued by factions including Gwen’s ex-lover and nemesis, Karl, as they try to unspool fact from fiction in a multi-generational obsession with a statue of the goddess Medusa.
Buy links here.

Stuck in NYC when plans for their next expedition fall through, Gwen and Justin accept teaching jobs at different local universities. Adjusting to their day-to-day relationship, and juggling the academic and emotional demands of their students, they are embroiled in two different, disturbing, paranormal situations that have more than one unusual crossing point. Can they work together to find the answers? Or are new temptations too much to resist? For whom are they willing to put their lives on the line? Available on multiple digital channels here.

NAUTICAL NAMASTE MYSTERIES

SAVASANA AT SEA

Yoga instructor Sophie Batchelder jumps at the chance to teach on a cruise ship when she loses her job and her boyfriend dumps her in the same day. But when her boss is murdered, and the crew thinks she's taking over her predecessor's blackmail scheme, Sophie must figure out who the real killer is -- before he turns her into a corpse, too. A Not-Quite-Cozy Mystery.
Buy Links here.

COVENTINA CIRCLE ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

PLAYING THE ANGLES
Witchcraft, politics, and theatre collide as Morag D’Anneville and Secret Service agent Simon Keane fight to protect the Vice President of the United States -- or is it Morag who needs Simon’s protection more than the VP?
Buy links here.

THE SPIRIT REPOSITORY
Bonnie Chencko knows books change lives. But she never expected her life to change because she happened to duck into a small bookshop in Greenwich Village on a rainy late November night. She’s attracted to Rufus Van Dijk, the mysterious man who owns the bookshop in his ancestors’ building. A building filled with family ghosts, who are mysteriously disappearing. It’s up to Bonnie and her burgeoning Craft powers to rescue the spirits before their souls are lost forever. Buy Links here.

RELICS & REQUIEM
Amanda Breck’s complicated life gets more convoluted when she finds the body of Lena Morgan in Central Park, identical to Amanda’s dream. Detective Phineas Regan is one case away from retirement; the last thing he needs is a murder case tinged by the occult. The seeds of their attraction were planted months ago, when Phineas investigated an attack on Amanda’s friend Morag. Now, fate is determined to draw them close. But can they work together to stop a wily, vicious killer, or will the murderer destroy them both?
Buy link here.

THE JAIN LAZARUS ADVENTURES

Hex Breaker by Devon Ellington. A Jain Lazarus Adventure. Hex Breaker Jain Lazarus joins the crew of a cursed film, teaming with tough, practical Detective Wyatt East on an adventure fighting zombies, ceremonial magicians, the town wife-beater, the messenger of the gods, and their own pasts.
This series will re-release in 2020.
Visit the site for the Jain Lazarus adventures.</a

Full Circle: An Ars Concordia Anthology. Edited by Colin Galbraith. My story is “Pauvre Bob”, set at Arlington Race Track in Illinois is included in this wonderful collection of short stories and poetry. You can download it free here.